Across the Stars for You
by Astudyinkhan
Summary: On the edge of Klingon space, the Enterprise's warp core malfunctions on their mission to arrest John Harrison and his accomplice, Abigail Soong. Along their journey, devastating truths come to light for Captain Kirk and it becomes life or death for Abigail on board the U.S.S. Vengeance as she strives to help her lover obtain the revenge he deserves.
1. Waking Up

Abigail's eyes opened to the spinning walls of a brightly lit room. A figure was leaning over her, testing her pupil reaction, as she blinked slowly and shook her head slightly. She took catalog of her body, her breaths coming in shallowly. Nothing hurt like it was broken, every limb and appendage felt connected, her head throbbed like she had been dosed with an anesthetic, and there may have been a bit of bruising on her lower back. The room was so damn bright. With a deep breath, she went to sit up only to feel uncomfortable restraints fastened around her waist, ankles, and wrists. She frowned, watching the man that had leaned over her turn to someone else and murmur something she couldn't hear over the pounding of her head. Blinking again, the room came into focus. The quiet shhh of a door sliding open brought her flying back to the present.

"So, the great Abigail Soong awakens," came a taunting voice in the direction of where the door had sounded.

Abigail measured her facial expressions as she felt the bed she was anchored to move so it resembled her standing. Her golden eyes surveyed the two men in front of her. One stood just a hair's width taller with muddy brown eyes and a slightly tanned complexion. His dark hair was cleanly kept, short and easily manageable and he was dressed in the standard blue, medical issue Starfleet regulation uniform. The other man had a look of rebellion on his handsome face, along with a couple of scrapes along the temple and cheek bone. His blue eyes held himself in high regard along with his yellow uniform shirt. The smirk on his full lips chastised her and she didn't appreciate his attitude.

"Captain," she murmured, watching the look on his face falter as he realized he had just lost a notch of his upper hand

"This has been your excellent doctor for this evening, Dr. McCoy," Kirk gestured to the man in blue beside him who had taken out one of his high tech syringes. "You don't mind if he takes a bit of blood, do you?" he asked, as if she had a choice in the matter.

"By all means, doctor," she consented, not releasing eye contact with the captain as her sleeve was rolled up and the needle was inserted into her arm.

"So, do all of you Augments have pretty British accents or is it just you? And Khan for that matter," Kirk asked, grinning curiously as he flirted with his enemy.

Abigail raised her eyebrow, unimpressed and waited for the syringe to fill to the doctor's liking. The captain maintained the steady eye contact the woman had initiated, trying in vain to regain the full upper hand that her silence had thrown from him a bit.

"We have your boyfriend in custody," he began again, walking over to look through some papers that McCoy had put together on her. "Khan."

He flipped through the papers with half interest before looking back over at her. "Once Bones is done here we'll take you to his holding cell."

"Out of the goodness of your heart, Captain?" Abigail asked sarcastically, feeling the needle exit her arm as the blood sample was finished.  
McCoy looked a lot more uneasy than Kirk, looking into the woman's face with mild distrust, adding the blood samples to the two taken from Khan earlier.

Jim laughed, grinning up the woman before him. "You know, you're way too pretty to be so sarcastic," he flirted, winking at her.

"Awh, you think I'm pretty?" she asked derisively, raising her eyebrow mockingly.

"Gorgeous, sweetheart." He winked, bending down to undo the ankle restraints, then her wrists and finally the one around her waist.

Abigail dropped a few inches from the bed to the floor, eyeing the captain curiously. The clothes she had on felt odd and as she looked down, realizing she had on a standard issue black Starfleet uniform. Sighing, she rolled her eyes, letting her arms drop to her sides.

"Is this your way of suggesting that you own me?" she asked dryly, gesturing to the Starfleet insignia at her breast with disgust.

"Now you're catching on," Kirk said with a wink, actioning for a small group of guards to escort her. "Would you boys take this little treasure to the brig, please?"

One of the guards snorted and the four of them made a barrier around her. As they exited the Med Bay and made their way to the brig of the ship, Abigail went over forty three different ways that she could incapacitate the four guards surrounding her and make a clean getaway. Fifty eight if she was willing to get shot a handful of times. And although they no longer used bullets in Starfleet, the stun setting on their phasers hurt a hell of a lot more when they didn't actually stun the intended victim. In a matter of minutes she was being ushered into yet another painfully white room, yet this one was quite a bit different than the others. Near the center of the room, in a clear fronted holding cell sat a man. The man wore the same black Starfleet uniform as Abigail, his posture was equally straight and unfaltering. His hair was also dark, although quite a bit darker than her's, but was combed back and out of his face. He was pale, his eyes like blue ice in his handsome face. As the small group entered he did not look up, merely stared forward, unseeingly into the plated white wall of the cell.

When they neared the unseen entrance in the glass, it slid open with the tapping of the key pad. The guard that flanked Abigail to her right nudged her slightly forward as the men in front of her stepped to the side. Gritting her teeth, she snapped her elbow back, making contact with and breaking the guard's nose. She stepped forward into the cell as blood poured down the man's face and the cell door slid shut behind her. Glares were shot her way, which she ignored and the four men quickly left the room. They were alone.

"You're looking as handsome as ever," Abigail offered, her eyes grazing over the figure sitting before her. God, she had missed him.

A smirk graced Khan's lips as he stood in one fluid motion. "You have blood on your face," he replied, stepping closer to her and wetting his thumb with his tongue before wiping away the small drop of blood on her cheek bone.

The young woman pursed her lips to keep from smiling before catching the man's wrist as he began to pull away. Raising up onto her tiptoes, she took his lips with her own, hand cupping the back of his neck so he could not pull away. He only hesitated a second, claiming her lips with his and leaning down to meet her. His free arm snaked around her waist, pulling her closer to his muscular body. She ran her fingers through the back of his hair, slowly lowering herself back down to the floor of the cell and pulling away slightly. Meeting his eyes, she grinned, sucking his bloodied thumb into her mouth for a moment before stepping back and releasing his wrist. The man looked down at her, frustration eminent in his eyes as he traced his thumb along her lower lip, dragging it down slightly before moving his hand away. He stepped back, eyes roving over her long, thin form.

"Soon," he murmured, smirking as she tugged her lower lip between her teeth.

The footsteps of three men echoed down the hall, approaching the glass faced cell. The two Augments paid no attention, eyes locked in their silent conversation. The displeased sound of someone clearing their throat to Abigail's right brought forth a sigh from her lips and she turned slowly, eyes full of distaste for the captain, doctor, and first officer.

"Can I help, you gentlemen?" she asked, voice measured, eyes trained on Kirk.

"You broke one of my men," Jim said through clenched teeth, his arms folding over his chest like a wayward child out of defiance.

"He pushed me," she said simply, taking no apparent interest in the conversation, only driving up the captain's temper.

"You know, I may not have you for murder like your son of a bitch boyfriend, but I'm sure Admiral Marcus will take an interest in you all the same." A flash of hatred flitted over Abigail's face at the name before she composed herself. This was not missed by Kirk. "You're just as different as Khan over there," he pointed half heartedly in his direction, keeping his focus on her, "and I'm sure you can take a punch even better than him."

"You flatter me, Captain," she murmured, her lips curling into a smirk. "And as for the punching, you're more than welcome to find out for yourself. I'd love to hear you tell the story of how you broke your hand punching a woman's face."

Spock looked as if he were itching to say something, but knew better as to the feedback that would come from it. Kirk smiled curtly, shaking his head up at the woman behind the glass as he looked down at the floor for a moment to collect his thoughts and no doubt think of a witty comeback.

"Oh, and do indulge me, Captain. What am I doing in a cage if I have done nothing wrong?" she asked, her face appearing as if the question were as innocent as a child's.

Jim laughed, shaking his head again. "When we captured you two, you were killing an entire command unit of Klingons. And you being in league with this guy is enough to put you away for a number of years."

"Oh, you don't believe that, Kirk. We saved your ass anyway..."

Abigail got cut off by the intercom. Hikaru Sulu's voice filled the brig before Jim could get in a word edgewise.

"Proximity alert, sir. There's a ship at warp headed straight for us."

"Klingons?" Kirk asked, looking up at the ceiling, his mind racing for who could possibly be coming for them now.

"At warp? No, Kirk. We both know who it is," Khan intoned, his eyes locked on the captain as he took a step toward the glass.

"I don't think so. It's not coming at us from Kronos," Sulu argued, searching through the energy signature to try and decipher who was heading straight for them.

The captain hesitated a moment then turned in the direction of the guard by the sliding door. "Lieutenant, move Khan to Med Bay. Stick six security officers on him. Let Abigail out, she's coming with me."

The Lieutenant looked confused for a moment before tapping the pad to open the door. "Do you want a security detail on her, Captain?" he asked, watching her with dismay as she gracefully walked out of the cell, winking at him as she went.

Jim made a face and shrugged. "What's she gonna do? Punch them in the face, too?" he asked sarcastically, walking towards the hall to get back to the bridge.

Spock looked at Abigail as if to usher her towards the hall without physical contact. The young woman smiled curtly at the Vulcan, making to follow after Kirk just as quickly. They made their way to the bridge, Abigail getting more than her fair share of stares as she smirked and walked passed the captain's chair and toward the windshield. Jim walked up next to her, turning slightly to look at Sulu.

"Hail them, would you, Mr. Sulu?" he inquired, straightening his posture in comparison to the woman's beside him.

"Hailing them now, Captain," Sulu confirmed, his fingers flying over the control panel before him.

"Captain Kirk..." Admiral Marcus's voice filled the room, filtering through the intercom system as his face was blown up on the windshield before them.

"Admiral Marcus. I wasn't expecting you. That's a hell of a ship you've got there," Kirk rallied, nodding in admiration.

"And I wasn't expecting to get word that you'd taken Harrison into custody in violation of your orders."

"Well we, uh…had to improvise when our warp core unexpectedly malfunctioned. But you knew that, didn't you, sir?"

"I don't take your meaning."

"Well that's why you're here, isn't it? To assist with repairs? Why else would the head of Starfleet personally come to the edge of the neutral zone."

"Captain, they're scanning our ship."

"Is there something I can help you find, sir?"

"Where is your prisoner, Kirk?"

"Per Starfleet regulations, I'm planning on returning…Khan…to Earth; to stand trial."

"Well shit. You talked to him. That's exactly what I was hoping to avoid…" The admiral paused for a moment, finally seeming to see the woman standing next to Kirk. She was gorgeous really, her long, wavy dark hair falling to her waist before she expertly swept it up into a bun at the middle of her skull. Her eyes were like golden fire, piercing through the screen and staring right into Marcus's soul in her finely set, pale face. The woman looked to be about 5'8" in comparison to the captain of the Starship Enterprise, and there was a certain coldness about her, as if she wouldn't hesitate to rip someone's heart out of their chest if they were to get in her way.

"And who is this? You weren't in any of those tubes, miss. I would recognize a face like that." He watched her silently for a moment, weighing his options.

"Oh, I was in one at one point. I think that you'd recognize me if you heard my name, Admiral," she replied curtly, her attention unwavering as waves of hatred encircled her, making her mind lock onto one thing in the haze of her thoughts. Revenge for the man she loved.

"Well, don't be shy, now. Enlighten me," the older man prompted, folding his hands in his lap and watching her with a curious look on his worn face.

"Abigail Soong, sir," Kirk supplied before the woman had any chance to change the subject.  
Marcus froze, his mouth slightly ajar as waves of remembrance overtook him. Her face had been masked the last time he had made her acquaintance, but those eyes, those eyes had followed him. Always behind his eyelids as he blinked. Her eyes, the only thing uncovered by the black scarf that had hidden her identity from him.

Abigail pivoted, her back to the screen and her front facing Kirk, her lips at his ear as she began to speak quickly. "Listen to me, I'm only going to have time to say this once before the admiral's daughter comes in and ruins everything." Her voice was low and precise as she got to the point. "He is going to beam me aboard his ship with the same beaming device that was found in Khan's ship after he hit your Head Quarters. I need you to take Khan and space jump over to the airlock of Marcus's ship. It will be opened for you. I'll meet you on the bridge of their ship in-" Golden beams of light quickly encircled her and she was cut off as everything around her went black.


	2. A Familiar Face

Opening her eyes to the darkness that surrounded her, Abigail stood from the cold return pad of the Starship Vengeance. She could hear the slow breathing of another person, most likely the admiral's daughter, near her on the ground. What she assumed to be the door opened and flooded the compartment with bright light. Blinking rapidly to adjust to the brightness, she felt her arm being roughly grabbed by one of Marcus's private security guards. She bit the inside of her cheek to avoid the urge to easily fight her way free, and allowed herself to be pulled out into the hallway. Hearing the other guard grab Carol and follow the two of them in the direction of the bridge, she calculated every single point she could incapacitate the guards at, the blueprints that Khan had designed flashing through her head.

As they entered the bridge she felt the guard holding her give her a little push forward to signal that they were almost there and she was being slow. Grinding her teeth together, she spun around to face the guard and felt the tip of a phaser being held to her belly.

"Oh please," she growled, her eyes locked on the brawny man before her, "make my day."

A flash of uncertainty passed over the guard's face and she watched his eyes flit passed her shoulder and to Marcus's as she heard him rise from the captain's chair.

"Marcus, I'm sure you're curious to see if it'll incapacitate me," she began, keeping her eyes on the man before her as he held the phaser steadily. "I won't stop you."

"If you're looking for pain all you had to do was ask," the admiral replied steadily.

Abigail felt a pinch at her shoulder, seeing the plunger being pushed down in her peripheral vision just before she snapped her arm up to grab the throat of the needle wielder in question. The syringe dropped to the floor and she heard the phaser go off at point blank range. Her head snapped forward, knocking unconscious the guard who dropped the phaser before having his head smashed into the oncoming head of the man who had injected her with only God knew what. Both men dropped to the ground and she met the horrified blue eyes of Carol Marcus. Silently, she pivoted to face the admiral once again, distaste for the man filling her gaze and coloring her thoughts red.

"If you were curious as to what was in that syringe, it was just something that I had my boys in the lab whip up incase Khan were to do anything...ill advised." Marcus walked back towards the captain's chair, sitting in it slowly, as if his back hurt. "It's meant for Augments like you, so that should be taking effect soon." He faced her slowly, looking up at her with intrigue as he twisted the chair to line up with the direction his head was facing.

Abigail raised her eyebrow, keeping her face measured as she looked down at the man before her. She walked over to stand in front of him. "I don't particularly care," she replied, venom laced in her words. Her muscles began to ache slightly, a faint echo as if from a past injury spreading from the injection sight and through her limbs. She didn't think that it had shown through until the man continued.

"It'll start like an ache. Sore muscles building up to a shooting fire running through every single vein in your body until you can't take it anymore. You'll slowly begin to lose your sight and control of your arms and legs. But you should be able to hear just fine." He smirked then, thinking of her crumpled on the floor, defenseless as he commentated her distress. "Until your ultimate demise that is."

"I don't care," Abigail repeated, watching the admiral raise his eyebrows. "As long as I can hear Khan ending your life, I don't care." She laughed then, watching any satisfaction drain from his eyes in that moment.

Admiral Marcus stared at the woman a moment, realizing the fierce devotion and loyalty the Augments seemed to have. Abigail in particular. This woman didn't care what happened to her as long as Khan, whatever he meant to her, had had his vengeance. Marcus knew that when faced with the unknown of expiration, Abigail would face Death with a smirk and welcome it as though it were an old friend. The admiral's eyes flickered over to the watery eyes of his daughter who stood trembling, still restrained by the guard to her left.

A new wave of pain hit Abigail, blooming at the base of her skull and sliding a fiery fingertip down her spine and engulfing her chest. A far more noticeable shudder shook her as she tried to maintain her composure. Her hands balled into fists at her sides as she forced herself to lift her eyes back up to meet the cold gaze of the admiral. His whole body straightened to attention, noticing the effects of the drug quickly taking their hold of the young woman before him. A satisfied smirk curled his thin lips and he folded his hands casually in his lap.

"When Khan gets aboard this ship, he won't be able to touch you," Marcus gloated, leaning forward slightly. "You'll be too far gone."

Abigail raised her eyebrow, as if to solidify the words she was about to repeat. The admiral nodded, raising his hands in mock surrender, but his grin was unwavering. His wrinkled face openly set in satisfaction of winning a round with someone of her stature. He motioned towards four unoccupied guards standing around Carol.

"Take this lovely lady to the brig, would you?"

The four men nodded in unison, stepping onto the platform and moving around Abigail in a barrier. The young woman maintained steady eye contact with Marcus, not making a move to follow as the guards seemed adamant to go.

"I will tell you one thing, Admiral," she murmured, eyes colder than the unending space that surrounded their ship. "When Khan does get on this ship, and he will, he will slaughter each and every one of you, walking over your cold corpses until he finds you. Oh, and when he finds you he will crush your skull between his hands like a grapefruit. Your death will be painful and bloody and executed with absolutely no remorse. Your death will be...final."

Another shudder ran through Abigail's body, slowly bringing her to her knees between the four men. The admiral stared at the brunette, fear flashing through his eyes as he quickly stood from his seat and moved forward.

"You heard me," he spat at the guards, "take her to the brig."

One of the men in front of the woman and to her right grabbed her upper arm and hauled her to her feet. He towed her off of the platform and into the hallway, the other three following tightly behind. Abigail violently tugged her arm free when she had regained her composure and followed in the middle of the four armed guards. They moved as a unit, the men far more uneasy than her, sharing wary glances as they came closer to their destination. As they reached a fork in the hall, memories flashed to her mind. Taking the left would bring them to the hangar which was empty and contained the airlock. The right would take them to the Med Bay, crew members' quarters, and the brig.

As they began to turn right Abigail struck with deadly precision. Her left hand shot out across her body, making contact with the man to her right's throat and paralyzing his vocal cords and trachea. She didn't even notice as he fell to his knees and she took the man behind her and to her left's surprise to her advantage, grabbing his right wrist and easily breaking his arm over her shoulder then sending him sailing through the air and into the guard who had dragged her off the bridge. Four sharp pew's rang out and echoed off the halls as bright light flew from the phaser in question and hit her in the chest. The woman staggered a moment before slamming the guard's head into the wall, effectively knocking him unconscious. She took the phaser and shot each man on stun for good measure before leaning against the wall and heaving in a few steadying breaths. The shots had hit her dead center of the chest, and she could feel the paralysis of a few minor muscles squeezing her lungs and heart.

Clamping her eyes shut for a few extra moments, Abigail steadied herself before hauling herself away from the wall and turning left at the fork in the hall. After a minute or two of passing doors to various engineering departments, and another muscle jolting wave of pain, she found herself opening the door that led to the hangar. Taking the stairs two at a time, she found the panel that would open the airlock. Strangely enough, it stated that it had been opened only a moment before. She frowned at the panel, calculating the time it would've taken Kirk to get Khan and space jump over to the ship. Had the former engineer of the Enterprise successfully allowed them access? A door slammed shut on the opposite side of where she had come from in the large room. Phaser in hand, she followed at an easy jog, although her body screamed at her to simply crumble on the floor and let the pain over take her.

Slipping silently through the door and quickly putting a long hallway behind her, Abigail came across a high ceilinged room filled with metal pipes, easily navigated by little spaces between the walls of engineering. The all too familiar sounds of a fight rang out from the other end of the room, and she quickly ducked behind a wall of tubes. She darted along the opposite side to the walkway on the other side of the pipes, finding the intruders in question. One was taller than the other, blondish hair flying, yellow Starfleet uniform, throwing one of the men from Marcus's private security into a wall of pipes. Kirk. The other a shorter man, with neatly kept reddish-brown hair, in a black uniform, punching a guard squarely in the face. The engineer.

As she looked on at the fight that was occurring, a large hand clamped over her mouth, a second arm latching around her waist and pulling her along the wall of pipes before spinning her around to face the owner of the arms. Automatically, Abigail brought the phaser up under the chin of her assailant, eyes locked on their neck.

"Why don't you put that down, darling?" an all too familiar, deep voice said lowly in her ear. The hand retreated from her mouth slowly, as if to make sure that she would not yell or scream once it was gone.


	3. Shall We Begin?

Abigail almost dropped the phaser, her arms locking around Khan's neck in relief. "I see you fit," she murmured into his shoulder, slowly pulling back to look into his handsome face.

"Four meters? I've fit through smaller," he joked, sounding odd in his even tone and emotionless features.

A grin began to tug at the of her lips before an unbelievable tremor of pain rolled through her body, making her grip at Khan's shoulders for support. Worry and fear passed through the Augment's eyes as he kept Abigail on her feet until whatever was happening to her passed. Her body began to go limp in his grasp and her clear golden eyes became foggy.

"What did he do to you?" he ground out, the sounds of fighting gone from a few rows down.

Abigail blinked, trying to clear the bright dots from her vision to no avail. "He gave me some sort of...drug." She shook her head, angry at the dots that floated before her eyes. "He said I would be in a lot of pain and lose my vision, the use of my arms and legs..."

The intense fury that passed through Khan's eyes almost frightened her, and she would've stepped back if his grip had not been so tight. "And what were the other effects of this drug?" he asked, his undying hatred tightening his throat.

"Death," she said simply, meeting his eyes and not showing any of the fear that tugged at the back of her mind.

Khan stood still a moment, his thoughts racing, all centered around two things. Revenge for the ones he loved and saving the only person he that he loved unconditionally with every ounce of his aching heart.

"We have to go," he murmured, grabbing her wrist and towing her behind him as he navigated the pipe rows back to Kirk and the engineer.

"This way," he ordered, making his way over the unconscious bodies in his mission to get to the bridge.

Ignoring the burning look of curiosity on the captain's face, Abigail followed tightly behind Khan up the narrow hallway towards the bridge.

Something felt off about the tension surrounding Kirk and the engineer as they got closer to their destination, as if the two had some unspoken resolution. Grinding her teeth together as the pain became a constant fire in every muscle, she squinted against the bright lights that suddenly came on in the hallway.

"They're back at full power," Kirk whispered in dismay, keeping up with the easy jog Khan had initiated.

He cast his eyes ahead, noticing the way Abigail seemed to be functioning under an immense stress. Her skin seemed to be lacking any usual color and fine sheen of sweat seemed to cover the back of her neck and along her cheekbones, and her eyes, from what he had seen a moment before, seemed cloudy and distant. Dismissing it as some weird Augment thing, he continued on until they got to the bridge.

The four of them fanned out across the bridge, training their phasers and shooting down all the crewmen in sight, leaving Admiral Marcus in the captain's chair. The dark spots floated in her line of vision, making it difficult to keep her focus on the admiral as she lifted her phaser towards him. Grinding her teeth together as the spots began to expand, she felt Khan at her side, his hand cupping the back of her neck.  
Her whole body tensed as she watched the engineer turn away from the admiral, pointing his phaser at Khan. His body crumpled beside her and a final wave of pain brought Abigail to her knees, then falling to the side. Blinking furiously at the spots, she locked her eyes on Marcus, hatred flowing through her agony riddled body. A smirk twisted the man's thin lips as he watched her failing to push herself back up.

"See? I told you it'd be painful," he intoned, watching the anger registering on her face as everything went black.

"Admiral Marcus, you're under arrest."

"You're not really gonna do this, are you?" Marcus scoffed, his disbelief and scathing apparent in his tone as he stared condescendingly at the young Captain.

"Admiral, get out of the chair."

"You'd better stop and think about what you're doing, Kirk," Marcus yarned, not moving from his position in the captain's chair. "You'd better think about what you did on Kronos. You made an incursion onto an enemy planet. You killed a Klingon patrol…even if you got away without a trace; war is coming! And who's gonna lead us? YOU?"

Frustration curled around her thoughts, blurring out the rest of Marcus's boring statements about how only he could lead Starfleet through the eminent war. How could her body, her weapon, give out on her like this? Her will to fight was stronger than anyone she knew and she refused to let the darkness swallow her whole. Ignoring the protest of all of her muscles, she dug her nails into the top of her thigh, rationalizing that it would start the healing process her highly adapted body possessed. Slowly but surely her vision began to lighten, dull blobs that could only be Kirk and the admiral standing before her. She could feel a hot, sticky liquid begin to dribble down her hand and a different kind of pain was blooming beneath her nails, but she dug them in harder. Her determination to get some use out of her body again flaming to life amid the pain that remained.

A cool hand curled around her forearm and she fought the urge to turn her face towards the owner; she knew what it meant. Khan was awake. Suddenly his hand was gone and she found herself digging her nails in deeper despite the pain that tore through every nerve of her body. Carol Marcus was yelling from the other end of the room, probably attempting to warn Kirk against the oncoming storm. A body fell a few feet from her, probably the engineer, she thought as the blobs before her began to take on human characteristics. A scream pierced through the chaos, bringing a new light to her vision; Carol Marcus was on the floor, bent over what had to be her broken leg and the unconscious body of Jim Kirk. She watched the figure that had to be Khan shoving Admiral Marcus into a chair as he attempted to flee the room, the admiral's head between the enclosing force of Khan's hands.

"You...should have let me sleep," echoed through her head as she lost her grip on her leg and fell back into blackness.

Khan released Admiral Marcus's skull, turning his back as the corpse slumped out of the chair and hit the floor with a dull thud. He stepped forward, the justice upon the worm of a man had been done and he walked towards the center of the room. Without missing a beat, he grabbed hold of Kirk by the collar of his shirt as he began to raise himself up from the floor. He dragged the complaining captain over to the front of the ship, typing in the combinations necessary to hail the acting Captain Spock aboard the Enterprise. Not daring to look back at Abigail as she lay motionless on the bridge, Khan focused all of his energy into dragging Kirk in front of the screen as the Enterprise's crew came into focus before them.

"I'm going to make this very simple for you."

"Captain!" Spock announced, surprise apparent on his usually stoic face.

"Your crew for my crew," Khan intoned, drawing Spock's attention back to him as he held fast to the back of Kirk's collar. The Vulcan would choose his crew's fate, but not condemn Khan's.

"You betrayed us."

"Oh, you are smart, ," Khan purred sarcastically.

"Spock, don't! Ah!" Kirk began before receiving a blow to the back of his skull from Khan. He fell to the ground unconscious.

The crew on board the Enterprise all stepped forward in alarm, Spock glaring up at the screen.

"Mr. Spock, give me my crew," Khan asserted, drawing the ship's attention back to him.

"And what will you do when you get them?"

"Continue the work we were doing before we were banished," Khan supplied simply, cold eyes focused on the Vulcan before him.

"Which as I understand it involves the mass genocide of any being you find to be less than superior."

Khan stared at the man, his lips curling slightly as he spoke. "Shall I destroy you, Mr. Spock? Or will you give me what I want?"

"We have no transporter capabilities," Spock deflected, breaking eye contact in an attempt to prolong the little time they had.

"Fortunately mine are perfectly functional. Drop. Your. Shields." Khan was losing his patients, for the crew of the Enterprise and the un-moving body of the woman he loved lying just at the corner of his peripheral vision. He had to get out of this and attempt at reviving her.

"If I do so I have no guarantee that you will not destroy the Enterprise," Spock reasoned, doing all he could to sway the Augment, but to no avail.

"Well let's play this out logically then, Mr. Spock. Firstly I will kill your Captain to demonstrate my resolve. Then, if yours holds, I will have no choice but to kill you and your entire crew."

Spock hesitated. "If you destroy our ship, you will also destroy your own people."

"Your crew requires oxygen to survive, mine does not. I will target your life support systems located behind the aft nacelle. And after every single person aboard your ship suffocates, I will walk over your cold corpses to recover my people," Khan paused then, making sure that he had their full attention. "Now...shall we begin?"

Spock hesitated once more. "Lower shields," he ordered Sulu.

"A wise choice, Mr. Spock," Khan acknowledged, his fingers dashing across the console expertly as he pinpointed the location of the torpedoes aboard the Enterprise. "I see your seventy two torpedoes are still in their tubes. If they are not mine, Commander, I will know it."

"Vulcans do not lie. They torpedoes...are yours," Spock confirmed, his head inclined slightly in the affirmative.

"Thank you...Mr. Spock." Khan made his way towards the center of the bridge where sat the captain's chair.

"I have fulfilled your terms, now fulfill mine."

"Well, Kirk, it seems apt to return you to your crew," Khan murmured, sitting in his rightfully claimed spot and tapping a few buttons on the arm of the chair. Golden beams of light quickly encircled Kirk, the engineer, and Carol Marcus. "After all, no ship should go down without her Captain."

As soon as the video call cut out, Khan locked the ship's missiles onto the Enterprise. Leaping out of the chair and rushing over to Abigail, he knelt beside her as he cupped her cheek while he felt for a pulse. It was there. Faintly, it was there, coupled with her shallow breathing and fluttering eyelids. The ship rocked beneath them with the force of the exiting missiles as he pulled her into his lap. He squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his lips to her forehead, determined to get the two of them, and his frozen crew, out of this damn galaxy.

A new force rocked the ship, a shudder running through his very bones as he held Abigail protectively to his chest. Realization hit him and he lowered her limp body to the floor before racing for the control panel. Sheer desperation erupted out of him as he saw that the torpedoes had exploded.

"NOOOOOO!" he bellowed, slamming his hands against the console as if it were to change the gut wrenching fact before him. His family was dead. And his lover was on her way out too.


	4. Three Months and Sixteen Days

"We've got a pulse!"

Abigail teetered on the edge of consciousness, watching dizzily as a blurry Dr. McCoy shown a light in each of her eyes. Clamping her eyes shut against the bright assault, she shook her head slowly, taking a deep breath in through her nose. Her brow furrowed as she slowly rolled her head from side to side. Where was she? Someone was calling her name, but it sounded far away. A large hand was squeezing her own and it sounded as if someone was yelling at her. All she wanted was to fall back to where she had been. It was quiet and dark there and no one was yelling at her. She took another deep breath in through her nose and suddenly snapped back into the present.

Starfleet medical personnel were scurrying around what seemed to be the Med Bay. People groaned in pain all around her, but she seemed to be the one closest to death. Why had McCoy let her live? I.v.'s hung from her right arm which was restrained to the bed, her left hand was being painfully squeezed by a dark figure that loomed over her. Everything was too bright and a fog hung over her mind, making it hard to think.

"Abigail, come back to me," a thick voice begged, causing her to roll her head in its direction. Khan stood over her, eyes uncharacteristically watery, but a tiny smile curling the corner of his lips with relief.

"Khan," she whispered, her voice scratchy to the point of unrecognition. Closing her eyes for a moment, she took another deep breath in to clear her foggy thoughts. "Wha-what's going on?"

"I, uh-" he shook his head, appearing to fight for alertness. "They're putting us back." His voice was too thick with grogginess to sound as angry as it had the last time she heard him speak.

Abigail frowned, trying to decipher what Khan was attempting to get across. Her breathing was heavy and broke up her speech as she began. "Put...putting us back...where?" Why were the two of them in such a foggy state of mind?

"In the tubes," Khan clarified slowly, his face determined to fight what seemed to be pulling him under. "They're putting us back in the cryotubes."

Reality hit Abigail like a ton of bricks and her eyelids flew open. Hurriedly she sat up, pulling the i.v.'s from her right arm and loosening the restraint enough to pull her arm free. She turned to Khan, hearing McCoy yelling for people to hold her down as her fellow Augment, sank onto the bed to her left. Before she could pull the i.v. from his arm, her own arms were quickly pinned to the bed by four or five men that had come out of nowhere. She struggled, eyes locked on McCoy who seemed to be more sad than frightened. Another blue uniformed figure walked up and stood beside the doctor, his hands clasped behind his back. Spock. He seemed angrily satisfied, watching as Khan finally lost consciousness next to her. His dark eyes flicked over to her as she struggled against the men surrounding her.

McCoy and Spock walked over to her right side, the doctor filling a large syringe with a clear liquid. Abigail began fighting harder, suddenly realizing the men had her pinned to the bed. Tears stung her eyes as she recalled the enclosing fear of the icy cryotube and she locked her eyes on McCoy.

"Please! Please for the love of God, don't shove me back in one of those bloody things!' Genuine tears streamed down her face, the fear in her eyes palpable as McCoy finished filling the syringe. "Spock," she changed her tactic, zeroing in on the Vulcan, "think about this, it isn't logical! When the Klingons attack, they will consume Earth! They will wipe all of you off the face of the planet, unless you keep me awake! Khan and I can lead you to-" She gasped as the doctor injected her with what she assumed to be an anesthetic. "No, no, no..." she whispered, her vision quickly going out of focus.

"Don't worry, Ms. Soong," Spock assured her, watching as the woman slowly stopped fighting. "We won't be putting you back in your cryogenic sleep. You'll be staying with us for quite a bit longer."

Every day that went by Abigail catalogued in her strikingly acute memory. Every drug they pumped into her system; every bone that they broke, she would remember. It had been three months and sixteen days since Khan had been submitted back into his cryogenic sleep. Three months and sixteen days since Kirk had died and been revived, and three months and sixteen days since she had been admitted to the Starfleet head quarter's medical testing lab in London. Not one of those days went by where she did not imagine seeking revenge on Captain Kirk and Commander Spock for the pain and suffering that she had undergone at their hands. Oh, but the revenge was not just for her, no. The revenge was also for Khan, her partner, her captain, her lover, who had been once again frozen so as to not wreak havoc as they once had.

Her hatred for the crew of the Starship Enterprise burned within her hotter than a thousand suns; not to mention the fact that the only reason that they had saved her life three months prior was so that they could perform tests of their own. As if the data the late Admiral Marcus had collected from Khan had not been enough, she thought to herself as she ignored the questions thrown at her from her doctor for the day. The tests she had been put through were not particularly creative, mainly testing the perimeters of her healing capabilities compared to that of a human being. Every day was dull, usually consumed with an array of injections and perhaps the breaking of a bone or ligament. The ligaments hurt, but they had ceased testing that particular structure when she had lashed out and and nearly killed the physician in question.

On the one hundred and seventh day, it played out the same. She was injected with an array of simple chemicals soon to be used when interrogating particularly tricky criminals. At four in the afternoon, she was escorted back to her room and hooked up to various i.v.'s and a heart monitor to record the after effects. Her limbs were weak from the earlier pain and her head was swimming with distracting thoughts of Khan when a very unwelcome figure stepped through the doorway.

"Captain," she said coolly, ignoring the pounding in her ears as hatred flooded her mind.

"Oh, look at you, sweetheart. They've got you hooked up to all kinds of nonsense don't they?" Kirk replied, watching the screen of the heart monitor remain steady before walking over to her right side and looking down into her beautiful face.

"You shouldn't be here," she murmured evenly, keeping her eyes straight forward, "I'd hate to inform the good doctor of your distractions."

Jim smirked, sitting on the edge of the bed as if she were a sick family member and took her hand in both of his. "I'm sure he won't mind. I'm just checkin' in on ya. You know how I worry." He winked as she rolled her eyes and turned her head towards him.

She didn't reply, and simply stared with a measured expression into the captain's face. He had not scarred from his dealings a few months back, and his ego was properly stroked without a bruise in sight. The fearless flirting he maintained one sidedly with her seemed to somehow plump it further even though she had so blatantly shown her distaste for him. She maintained eye contact as he slowly wet his lips and prepared to carry on his side of the conversation.

"So, sweetheart, have they been treatin' you well around here? You just say the word and I'll kick them to the curb," he teased, raising his eyebrow in hopes of her joining in on his game.

"You know, Captain," she began, watching his lips turn up at the corners as she engaged him, "if you're science monkeys didn't have so much at their disposal, you would have been dead the moment you walked in here." Abigail's cool exterior was unwavering, yet her golden eyes burned up at Kirk with a fiery displeasure.

"Awh, you don't mean that, beautiful," he argued, his face lingering dangerously close to her's. "You like me. You like that I flirt with you."

Abigail's resolve never wavered as she stared back at the man in his ridiculous game of chicken. Who would turn away first, and who would maintain the upper hand? He was far too close for comfort, and it took every ounce of self control she had to not rear back and head butt him clean across the room. His blue eyes were bright, fully prepared to sustain an injury for kissing her if it meant he wasn't the one who had backed down. Hell, he thought, she's gorgeous. It would be a disservice to back down. There would be no satisfying look of disappointment if he pulled away anyway, Abigail wasn't his usual choice of woman. Abigail was incredibly strong, physically and mentally, and she didn't need a man to tell her that. He briefly wondered what Khan would do if he ever found out that one of the men that he hated the most had kissed his girlfriend and a new kind of grin tugged at his lips. Worth it.

"It's dull actually," she said suddenly, careening back towards the conversation Kirk had all but forgotten about, "and I don't like you."

A soft chuckle escaped his lips as he remained about an inch away from her calculated expression. "Oh, you don't have to lie to me, sweetheart," he murmured, eyes on her set lips, "I can keep a secret."

Abigail narrowed her eyes daringly, curling her fingers into a fist as it remained hostage in his larger hands. "Whatever helps you sleep at night, Kirk," she sighed, jaw set in frustration with the arrogant captain. A thought flitted across her mind, what would Khan do when she told him that this idiot had kissed her? Probably inquire as to why he was not admitted into the medical wing himself.

A smirk crossed the young captain's lips as he tilted his head to the right and leaned in to press his lips against her's. She didn't react; her eyes set in a displeased glare while Kirk's lips moved against her own. He was trying to get a rise out of her, or to at the very least get her to kiss him back. Slowly he pulled back, blue eyes gazing into her bright golden one's as he waited for her to say or do something. Her eyes narrowed further, anger building in her chest as her fist connected with with his nose. Unfortunately for her, there was no satisfying snap to indicate that the bone had broken because of her weakened muscles, but the blood that dripped from the hand that clamped over his face brought a smirk to her lips.

"I recommend you not try that again, Captain," she muttered through her teeth, watching Kirk laugh despite the blood in his mouth.

"Oh, believe me, sweetheart," he grinned, pressing the call button by her bed to alert a nurse or doctor, "I just might." He winked at her as McCoy and a nurse hurried into the room, sedative in hand.

McCoy looked at Kirk in confusion as he held a hand to his bloody nose. "What'd you do, Jim?" the doctor asked, his brow furrowed as the nurse pressed down the plunger of the syringe.

The drug slid through the clear tubing, seeping into her vein through the needle as she watched the two Starfleet personnel argue in front of her. Her head fell back against the pillow and her breathing became deeper through her nose, but she fought to stay awake as she always did. Every muscle in her body ached to pull her under sedation; her limbs feeling extraordinarily heavy against the sheets of the bed. The captain smiled over at her, pressing the gauze that was offered to him to his nose.

"Well, Bones," Kirk began, sounding a little funny with his nose plugged, "I won a game of chicken." He looked proud of himself, his arrogance creating an aura around him.

"Bullshit," she scoffed, hearing the captain's laugh echo through her head as she was relentlessly pulled under.


	5. Epilogue?

Hello Khan and Abigail fans! So here's the plan. This particular tale is done, but their journey is just beginning. There will at least be two more stories of this series that I will post, and hopefully a third. The first that will be posted will be "Shattered Stars"- this will take place after Abigail was admitted into the medical wing for the testing of her Augment nature. There will also be a "Pre-Across the Stars for You" which will be just before Abigail and Khan were captured by Starfleet. And a "Pre-Pre-Across the Stars for You" which will hopefully be about their life while they were still under the observation of the scientists that created them as superior humans. I'll probably be more creative with the titles, but I don't want to confuse everyone with the titles and where they fall on the time line. So I'll figure that out.

Please leave some feedback as to whether or not you like it, anything that you'd like to change or see, and I will do my best to accommodate you guys. Thanks so much for reading! It means a lot whenever I come on here and read that a bunch more people have read my story :) I'll be in touch, so stay tuned!


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